No public holiday during population census exercise – NPC

The National Population Commission (NPC) has revealed that the forthcoming population census scheduled to hold between May 3 and 7, 2023 would not come with any public holiday.

This was revealed by the spokesperson of the NPC, Isiaka Yahaya, in a chat with newsmen.

He said there would not be any public holiday while the exercise is ongoing.

He said there might be restriction of movement during the census.

He said this decision was arrived at because people usually do not remain at home during holidays.

He said “There won’t be a public holiday, because during public holidays people can move from one place to another, but there may be restrictions on movement, based on past experiences. However, I can’t confirm that now. The government will come out with a categorical statement on that.

“Foreigners will be counted as long as they are in Nigeria. Everybody on the land space of Nigeria will be counted. If you look at the definition of Census, it is the enumeration of all persons. It did not say, only citizens. So, everyone resident in the country during the census period will be counted.

“There will be a section that will ask if you are a foreigner or not and the country they are from. It is part of the data to be collected, so it is not separate.”

He dismissed the rumour that anyone who does not make himself available for the population census exercise would be punished.

He further said: “It is a rumor that people who refuse to be counted will be sanctioned. All I know is that we have encouraged all Nigerians to make themselves available for counting because the exercise is in the national interest. There are actually offences that we do not want to emphasize, but we do not have the power and capacity to lock anyone up.”